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<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="boost_optional.quick_start.storage_in_containers"></a><a class="link" href="storage_in_containers.html" title="Storage in containers">Storage
      in containers</a>
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<p>
        Suppose you want to ask users to choose some number (an <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">int</span></code>).
        One of the valid responses is to choose nothing, which is represented by
        an uninitialized <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">optional</span><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="keyword">int</span><span class="special">&gt;</span></code>.
        You want to make a histogram showing how many times each choice was made.
        You can use an <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">map</span></code>:
      </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">map</span><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">optional</span><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="keyword">int</span><span class="special">&gt;,</span> <span class="keyword">int</span><span class="special">&gt;</span> <span class="identifier">choices</span><span class="special">;</span>

<span class="keyword">for</span> <span class="special">(</span><span class="keyword">int</span> <span class="identifier">i</span> <span class="special">=</span> <span class="number">0</span><span class="special">;</span> <span class="identifier">i</span> <span class="special">&lt;</span> <span class="identifier">LIMIT</span><span class="special">;</span> <span class="special">++</span><span class="identifier">i</span><span class="special">)</span> <span class="special">{</span>
  <span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">optional</span><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="keyword">int</span><span class="special">&gt;</span> <span class="identifier">choice</span> <span class="special">=</span> <span class="identifier">readChoice</span><span class="special">();</span>
  <span class="special">++</span><span class="identifier">choices</span><span class="special">[</span><span class="identifier">choice</span><span class="special">];</span>
<span class="special">}</span>
</pre>
<p>
        This works because <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">optional</span><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">T</span><span class="special">&gt;</span></code>
        is <a href="http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/LessThanComparable.html" target="_top"><code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">LessThanComparable</span></code></a> whenever <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">T</span></code> is <a href="http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/LessThanComparable.html" target="_top"><code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">LessThanComparable</span></code></a>. In this case
        the state of being uninitialized is treated as a yet another value of <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">T</span></code>, which is compared less than any value
        of <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">T</span></code>.
      </p>
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<td align="right"><div class="copyright-footer">Copyright © 2003-2007 Fernando Luis Cacciola Carballal<br>Copyright © 2014-2021 Andrzej Krzemieński<p>
        Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
        file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at <a href="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt" target="_top">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)
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